Syrian rebels carried out the 2013 Ghouta sarin attack
| Syrian rebels carried out the 2013 Ghouta sarin attack | |
|---|---|
| UNSUPPORTED | |
| "The August 2013 sarin attack in Ghouta, near Damascus, was carried out by Syrian rebels to draw the United States into the war, not by the Syrian government." | |
| Domain | War, Conflict & Geopolitics |
| Tactic | Conspiracy Theory |
| Era | Current |
| First seen | 2013 |
| Origin | Syrian and Russian government statements and articles by journalist Seymour Hersh in the London Review of Books in 2013 and 2014 |
| Last reviewed | 2026-10-30 |
| Further reading: books on War, Conflict & Geopolitics | |
In the early hours of August 21, 2013, rockets carrying the nerve agent sarin struck rebel-held suburbs of Ghouta, near Damascus. Hundreds of people were killed; estimates range from about 280 to more than 1,400. It was the deadliest chemical attack since the Iran-Iraq War.
The Syrian and Russian governments blamed rebels. Seymour Hersh argued that the jihadist Nusra Front could have produced sarin and that US intelligence had cherry-picked evidence.
What the evidence shows
- UN findings. The UN investigation led by Åke Sellström confirmed in September 2013 that surface-to-surface rockets carrying sarin had been used against civilians on a relatively large scale. The UN team was not mandated to assign blame.
- Trajectories. Analyses by Human Rights Watch and others of the UN's recorded rocket trajectories pointed toward areas controlled by government forces.
- Capability. The scale and type of the attack, using military rockets and large quantities of sarin, matched the capabilities of the Syrian government's chemical weapons program. No evidence showed that a rebel group had that capability.
- Aftermath. Under a US-Russian deal, Syria joined the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013 and declared a large chemical weapons stockpile.
Why it matters
Formal blame was never assigned by an international body for Ghouta, which leaves room for argument. The weight of the available evidence points to the Syrian government, and the rebel-attack theory rests on speculation.
Sources
- United Nations Mission to Investigate Allegations of the Use of Chemical Weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic, Report on the Alleged Use of Chemical Weapons in the Ghouta Area of Damascus on 21 August 2013, September 2013.
- Human Rights Watch, Attacks on Ghouta: Analysis of Alleged Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria, September 10, 2013.
- Seymour M. Hersh, "Whose sarin?" London Review of Books, December 19, 2013.